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Caliber Comics Founder Gary Reed Passes Away

Gary Reed, the founder and publisher of Caliber Comics, passed away Sunday following a heart attack. He was 60 years old.

His sudden passing is made even more shocking by the fact that Reed had attended Monroe Comic-Con in Michigan as a dealer over the weekend. His wife Jennifer Andrews Reed confirmed his death on Facebook:

“It’s with great sorrow that I need to inform friends and family of the passing of my husband, Gary Reed. He was such a special & talented man. That’s all I can say – he was the writer. Arrangements are TBD.”

Reed was born in Detroit, Michigan, where while still a college student he not only opened his first bookstore but also founded King Kon Comic & Fantasy Convention, and ran the show for three years.

In 1989, Reed launched Caliber Comics, which quickly grew into one of the largest independent comics publishers in the United States, releasing titling like “The Crow,” “Jinx,” “Deadworld,” “Negative Burn” and “Baker Street.” Many now well-known creators passed through Caliber, including Michael Allred, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Guy Davis, Michael Gaydos, Michael Lark and James O’Barr,

Reed closed Caliber and sold his stores in 2000 to pursue a career in teaching, becoming an adjunct professor at Henry Ford Community College in Dearborn, Michigan. However, he returned to comics in 2005 with the resurrection of “Deadworld,” this time published through Image Comics. He followed that in 2007 with the launch of Transfuzion Publishing, with Rafael Neives, and then in 2014 with the revival of Caliber Comics as a division of Caliber Entertainment, a company Reed co-founded with Eagle One Media’s Eric Reichert.